Like I said, I think they scaled it to the model, and not the lifesize... That's probably the biggest difference in scale of the two tangible studio examples of the vehicle... The model had a clearly wider look whereas the lifesize was probably made smaller so it was easier to move on the forklifts for the take-off sequence. At least I could easily see that. It could just be like a lot of other differences and nobody gave enough of a poo to care about it.

Except us of course. I swear the first time I saw ROTS one of the first thigns I noticed and which stuck with me from the get-go was Anakin's magic starfighter on Padme's balcony that kept going from one size to another as it swapped from CGI to lifesized prop/set.

The weathering I'll live with. If there's one thing that can be fixed easily, it's damaing it with a nice weathered paintjob. I almost like the "factory fresh" looks at times, just for the neatness of having a pristine one. Kind of like a model would be, if that makes sense. I'll weather one too though, for sure. I want Luke to have a nice beat-to-hell one.

Now... Where's Wedge's? Or Hobbie's? Or Zev's? I'm in for any repaint o fthis. I totally plan to do an open-cockpit one too, from Force Commander, rocking the Rebel Brown and quad-rear-cannon so the gunner can do some serious damage. I love it.

And man, the little stuff like the aurabesh, the quilted ceiling sculpted into the cockpit, the place for Luke's grapple gun, the tight cockpit for the figures, the interchangeable guns. This is my "Big AT-AT". I've had this thing on the drawing board and even partially done for a while, and now I can happily put that aside. All those Snowspeeder pilots we got are going to be riding in style now.

The Cloud Car, if it weren't so "dull", would be equally high on my list too. The detail they crammed into it when I saw it at Toy Fair, simply floored me. Opening engine compartments, tons of little stuff... Hasbro is making a fun toy, but they're doubling it as a great collectible too. To me, these are oon-par with the 1:18 military stuff I collect. A little simpler construction, but I find them pretty equal in quality.

Now if Hasbro REALLY wants me to fund their kid's college tuition, start doing this, to OT Fighters... X-Wing, Y-WIng, B-Wing... I'm down for all 3 getting a to-scale treatment, and and this kind of detailing. A lot less likely, but I'd gladly shell out big bucks for those to be done that way.

Sorry to be long-winded, I just knew you'd be the kind of guy who probably appreciates the direction I'm coming from .

I received a couple of these from TRU.com yesterday (with the buy one, get one 50% off deal), and I'll echo the comments here already - I think it is amazing. I've said before, this and the Falcon were my two favorite vehicles as a kid and it is nice to see both getting fantastic re-dos over the past few years here. I really hope we continue to see OT vehicle re-dos, because although the originals are nice in many ways, these improvements seem to really show what can be done these days with toys. Like Jesse mentioned, all the little details are astounding on this ship - and I'm definitely down for repaints of this for Wedge's, Zev's etc. Bring 'em on.

It's sounding like a broken record (in a good way), but I got this from TRU.com late in the week, and it's just pretty damned near perfect. The inclusion of the alternate firing guns (both front and back) was a very nice gesture from Hasbro, especially with how little things like this tend to get dropped due to costing issues on a lot of other items. Both Luke and Dack fit perfectly in the cockpit (and their hands fit the controls!), the little spot for Luke's harpoon gun is a great touch, and I can't get over just how nice this thing looks. This is a 10/10 all around for Hasbro, and I really hope they do a "red" repaint for Wedge somewhere down the line.

(I'm in the midst of trying to translate the Aurabesh inscription on the side of the ship and will update this post once I have it finished)

Weird, mine doesn't say that (although I haven't even tried to do the translation under the "ZZ" inscription). Here's what I got:

(under the laser cannon itself, right side of vehicle):

DO NOT STEP LASERCANNON POWER SUPPLY LOCATED UNDER PANEL

(on the "step" portion where Jesse's TF photo was taken, again, on the right side of mine):

LASERACCESSPANEL

And, on the removable cannon part (over the removable access panel):

LASERTARGET CONTROL

So, it looks like mine (at least) is different from the one shown at Toy Fair that Jesse saw/translated. I like what he saw better, actually. I was kind of hoping that one of the translations would have been "BE SURE TO DRINK YOUR OVALTINE."

I found this yesterday and I'll echo everyone's enthusiasm for it. I'm not a ship collector really, but this is one of the all time favorites and this new version is excellent. I'm looking forward to Wedge's next.